Doctor of Plant Health Program

Dr. Gary Hein Author

01/29/2015 Added

186 Plays

Description

Dr. Hein talks about the best reasons to study Plant Health at UNL.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:02.081](upbeat music)
[00:00:13.664]There are several great reasons to study
[00:00:15.702]at The University Of Nebraska.
[00:00:17.419]One of them I believe is particularly of interest
[00:00:19.797]to the Doctor of Plant Health Program.
[00:00:22.667]And that deals with the variability that we see across
[00:00:26.176]the state of Nebraska.
[00:00:27.927]Particularly, the environmental variability.
[00:00:30.378]In southeastern Nebraska the elevation
[00:00:32.581]is about 840 feet above sea level.
[00:00:34.871]In western Nebraska we do have areas in the panhandle
[00:00:38.028]that are above a mile high
[00:00:40.564]or over 5,000 feet above sea level.
[00:00:43.657]So that elevation impacts the environmental conditions.
[00:00:46.900]The other major thing that does impact
[00:00:48.787]the environmental conditions is rainfall.
[00:00:51.155]Rainfall in southeastern Nebraska will range
[00:00:53.385]from 30-35 inches a year.
[00:00:55.752]In western Nebraska or particularly western parts
[00:00:58.495]of the panhandle, rainfall, actually annual rainfall
[00:01:01.363]is below 15 inches a year.
[00:01:03.315]So again, tremendous variability.
[00:01:05.267]We might see more variability from southeast Nebraska
[00:01:08.755]to western Nebraska than we will see,
[00:01:10.557]say from eastern Nebraska to the Atlantic coast.
[00:01:13.693]So again, the variability can be very significant.
[00:01:16.626]The end result of this variability of,
[00:01:21.053]of environmental conditions is really the impact
[00:01:24.103]that it will have on plants and how plants grow.
[00:01:27.004]If we look at the changes in elevation
[00:01:29.372]and changes in rainfall across the state
[00:01:32.252]this really feeds into the variability
[00:01:34.246]that we see in Evapotranspiration.
[00:01:36.540]Evapotranspiration is the ability of plants
[00:01:39.099]to take up moisture and utilize moisture.
[00:01:42.273]And so we will see a very tremendous variability
[00:01:45.713]as we go from east to west.
[00:01:48.678]Evapotranspiration demand in the west
[00:01:50.769]is much, much higher than it is in the east.
[00:01:53.446]And this does impact the ability of plants
[00:01:55.931]to withstand stress and really to undergo stress.
[00:02:00.592]So, again very significant factors.
[00:02:03.035]Another significant factor that we see
[00:02:04.795]a great variability across the state
[00:02:06.608]and that's the edaphic factor to the soil factor.
[00:02:08.954]Many of the soils in the east are much deeper,
[00:02:12.463]much richer, will hold much more moisture
[00:02:15.109]than many of the soils, particularly in the sand hills
[00:02:18.074]or even in the west where we often times see
[00:02:20.495]fairly sandy soils that have relatively low amount
[00:02:24.505]of water holding capacity.
[00:02:26.340]If we look across the state, we really can break
[00:02:28.964]the state up into four ecoregions
[00:02:30.969]or four primary ecoregions.
[00:02:32.803]For this east region would be the region
[00:02:35.374]that's associated with the western corn belt.
[00:02:38.350]As we move across the state we get into
[00:02:40.270]the great plains region.
[00:02:41.859]In the central sandhills region and very far west we get
[00:02:45.453]into the high plains ecoregions.
[00:02:48.312]Now if we look at the impact of all of these factors
[00:02:50.605]on how plants grow, we certainly can understand
[00:02:53.858]that as we move across Nebraska,
[00:02:55.991]we will be growing different types of plants,
[00:02:58.242]under different types of conditions.
[00:03:00.108]And this variability will impact how we manage
[00:03:02.423]those plants and how those plants can best be utilized
[00:03:06.426]in an economic system of agriculture.
[00:03:09.519]The variability as we move across the state
[00:03:11.908]can be tremendous.
[00:03:13.209]We do see variability in types of plants but also
[00:03:16.110]in the rotations in which these plants are grown.
[00:03:19.225]Also, as we move across the state,
[00:03:20.782]The University Of Nebraska has different locations,
[00:03:23.150]research and extension center locations,
[00:03:25.444]that do mirror these, some of this variability,
[00:03:27.950]so we want these, they've placed these research
[00:03:31.086]and extension centers in different areas
[00:03:32.823]of the state deliberately to represent the agriculture
[00:03:36.076]that is going on and being conducted across the state.
[00:03:41.047]So again, as we look at the,
[00:03:43.463]how The University of Nebraska
[00:03:46.127]is addressing agriculture across the state,
[00:03:48.569]we see that they're trying to take some
[00:03:51.118]of this variability into account.
[00:03:53.003]As a result of this, that students will be exposed
[00:03:55.851]to a wide range of, of environments
[00:03:59.083]and a lot of these environments will be representative
[00:04:01.291]of numerous areas throughout North America
[00:04:03.659]and really around the globe.
[00:04:05.472]A lot of developing countries are located near areas
[00:04:09.066]where we have arid situations, arid climates.
[00:04:12.362]And in western Nebraska we do have a semi-arid area
[00:04:15.871]where we again learn to utilize crops
[00:04:20.468]that are growing in areas where we have
[00:04:23.796]very high evapotranspiration requirements
[00:04:27.945]but also where they-we are short water as well.
[00:04:32.030]So these are experiences that can be very important
[00:04:35.241]throughout the learning process
[00:04:37.374]and as we are working in the Doctor Plant Health Program.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Doctor of Plant Health Program

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments